1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a temperature control module for a socket, and particularly to a temperature control module suitable for providing test environment with different temperatures for testing electronic components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally speaking, after electronic components have been accomplished through a series of manufacturing processes, for most of electronic components, they have to be tested with a test instrument to ensure they can be normally operated. However, for testing of electronic components, it is a very important task to test the electronic components under high-temperature or low-temperature environment.
Under the current technical circumstances, most of high-temperature or low-temperature tests are prepared by using a temperature control device. Hence, when the temperature control device directly contacts an electronic component to be tested, it will be heated or cooled. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,922, FIG. 1 discloses a thermal head 14, comprising a cooled portion 26 and a heated portion 28. Furthermore, the thermal head 14 is connected to a rod 18 which can be lifted and lowered by a piston of a cylinder. The lifting and lowering movements make the contact surface 16 of the thermal head 14 in contact with or get away from an electronic device 10 to be tested. Accordingly, the electronic device 10 can be heated or cooled by the heated portion 28 or the cooled portion 26 respectively.
Moreover, since a test fixture 12 itself is not heated or cooled, it is heated or cooled when a formal test is progressed. That is, when the electronic device 10 is set on the test fixture 12, the thermal head 14 heats or cools the electronic device 10 to make the test fixture 12 reach the same temperature through thermal conduction.
Nevertheless, this temperature control means can only heat or cool the top portion of the electronic device to be tested, such that it is difficult to precisely and uniformly control the temperature of the test environment.
It can be seen that if a sock is provided with a module having a temperature control function, then a high-temperature or low-temperature environment can be built to test the electronic device readily. For the chip testing field, there is an urgent demand for a socket which does not need to take any waiting time to heat or cool a chip to be tested and can continuously maintain a socket at a predetermined temperature.